Report: Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs to choose former Republican John Giles as running mate

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has reportedly tapped a longtime Republican as her running mate in her campaign for reelection.

The New York Times on Tuesday reported Hobbs, facing a Friday deadline, is planning to choose former Mesa Mayor John Giles to run for the new role of lieutenant governor.

The Hobbs campaign so far has not confirmed the choice.

“My priority is someone who is going to share my approach to governing, working across the aisle, putting Arizonans over partisan ideology and that’s who I will pick,” Hobbs told reporters Tuesday prior to the Times report.

Earlier Tuesday, Hobbs launched an “Arizona Over Party coalition” claiming support from more than 50 Republicans and political independents. Hobbs said that shows how different she is than Congressman Andy Biggs, the Republican nominee, whom she accuses of being a hyper-partisan Trump supporter.

By contrast, Giles has in many ways long since parted from the Republican Party — a split made official in May, according to records obtained from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.

He revealed to NPR that he voted for Joe Biden in 2020. But he said that was more out of fear of what it would mean to the country for Trump to get a second term.

In 2022, Giles endorsed not only Hobbs in her bid for a first term as governor but also backed Democrat Mark Kelly in his successful run for the U.S. Senate.

Two years later, he was given a prime-time slot at the Democratic national convention.

“I have a confession to make: I’m a lifelong Republican,” Giles told the audience in Chicago and those watching on TV.

“So I feel a little out of place tonight,” he continued. “But I feel more at home here than in today’s Republican Party.”

Giles also said the GOP has become “the cult of Donald Trump,” saying the then-former president made a lot of promises “but couldn’t deliver a thing.”

Then when Biden bowed out of his own reelection bid, Giles issued a statement saying that while he did not always agree with the president “I never doubted his commitment to defending the Constitution,” commending Biden’s “leadership, bipartisanship, and dedication to this country.

Giles then went on to actively back Kamala Harris, who took on Trump’s 2024 effort to get back into the White House.

As recently as 2024, Giles — whose position as Mesa mayor from 2014 to 2025 was nonpartisan — said he still wasn’t ready to leave the Republican Party.

“I am more comfortable in terms of political positions in the Republican Party than I am in the Democratic Party,” Giles told PBS two years ago. Giles also said at the time that Democrats appeared to favor "open borders.” And he described himself as “pro-life.”

“I didn’t leave the Republican Party,” he said. “The Republican Party is trying desperately to leave me.”

As first reported by Axios, voter records show Giles officially left the Republican Party in May, when he changed his registration to “no party preference” — or independent.

The Biggs campaign wasted no time in jumping on the report, constructing a website calling Hobbs and Giles “Kamala and Tim’s choice for governor,” the latter reference to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who Harris selected as her 2024 running mate. The site also contains links to various news stories about Giles’ attendance at the DNC and his endorsement of Harris.

Biggs last week chose former state Sen. Sine Kerr, a Buckeye farmer and conservative Republican like himself, as his running mate.

This is the first year Arizonans will get a ballot with the names of the governor and lieutenant governor candidates running as a ticket.

Until now, the Arizona Constitution said when a governor dies in office; quits to take another job; gets criminally indicted; or is impeached and convicted — all of which actually have happened in Arizona — the next in line of succession is the secretary of state.

The only thing is, the person in that office got there by being elected on his her own. And there is no guarantee that the new governor is from the same party as the person replaced or will continue the same policies.

That most recently occurred in 2009, when Democrat Janet Napolitano, less than two years into her second term, quit to take a job in the newly elected Obama administration. That put Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer into the top job.

It also has gone the other way. Democrat Rose Mofford became governor in 1988 after the legislature impeached and convicted Republican Evan Mecham.

Voters approved the change to create the post of lieutenant governor in 2022, effective with this year’s election.

KJZZ’s Katherine Davis-Young and Ben Giles contributed to this report.